What I am impressed by in Carl Mydans as a photojournalist (and also in his writing) is how in the moment he seems. It feels like he really threw himself into whatever his assignment, carefully observing and calculating the people around him. I find it interesting that Mydans “specialized in getting one picture that told the story by itself” (Grundburg) instead of utilizing a series. This seems like perhaps a unique and valuable quality in a photojournalist. In lieu of relying on multiple images, it appears Mydans really considered the moment he captured in his frame. Perhaps this is why I find some of his photographs more compelling than other photojournalistic pictures. The photographic agency seems deliberate often by use of framing and cropping. For example, the two images below use extended “blank” space in framing the subjects and giving them context – a composition I find more compelling than a closely cropped image of their bodies.
Perspective also sometimes seems to consciously place the viewer. For example, one image of the French woman having her head shaved places the photographer viewer in a position as if everyone is turning their heads to look at him in an unabashed confrontational manner, giving the feeling that they could also assault this viewer if he reacts in the wrong way. In another, the vantage point is even below that of the Frenchwoman, giving the onlookers a looming quality, again placing the viewer in a situation as if they must choose whether to go with the crowd or risk themselves.
In another photograph of two German soldiers Mydans places the viewer on the exact same level as them, some how lending them more humanity, their eyes though downcast, still visible. The almost gentleness in this picture is perhaps an unusual quality in an image of the enemy.
Finally, I find it intriguing that Mydans was so meticulous in documenting his pictures. I assume all the captions and long titles accompanying the pictures are his words and this gives an interesting, more direct and personal reading to several of his photographs. I think that his photographs would not need captions for us to read the history in them, but because Mydans produced them with subtitles as a photojournalist, I believe they should be considered with them.
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